Using Windows Vista, it seems to be quite simple to create a playlist. All you need to do is right click on any song (or songs) that is on the Insignia Pilot and select 'Create Playlist'. It will them create a new playlist called 'New Playlist.pla' containing the select song(s).

You then click on it to open it. While the playlist is open you can then go back and select the songs you want, dragging them across to the playlist window. Once you are finished you can then rename the playlist to something more appropriate as well as move it from the folder it was first created in.

I tried this on Windows XP and it doesn't seem to have the same ability.

I tried using several native Linux apps capable of creating playlists with no success, until I tried EasyTAG. The attached image shows the settings.

Much thanx linux_paul. In playing around with EasyTag and trying to customize my playlists, I learned a couple things.

1 - when using EasyTag, the only playlist creating options I HAD TO select were 'Use DOS directory separator' and 'Write info using filename'. I could pick either option of the others and it still worked fine. I do recommend using relative paths instead of full ones - less trouble in paradise.

2 - if you plan to customize or re-arrange the tracks manually to get them to play in a different order, use an editor other than gedit. I couldn't get my custom list to work for a long time till I decided to look at a list that did work, then look at my custom using vim for both. I found gedit had put carriage returns at the end of each line in my custom list, and that the file was no longer recognized as DOS, and that's what kept the Pilot from recognizing it.

Ultimately, although it took longer to complete, I used EasyTag to create the initial playlist, then used gvim to move the songs around into the order I wanted. It works great!! Thanks all - I hope this helps someone else playing in the Linux world like me.

What I did to make a playlist seemed pretty simple. I selected songs already on my Pilot using Media Monkey and created a playlist. Then using my right click, I did Send To>.m3u playlist. That allowed me to name the playlist and put it in the Playlist folder on the Pilot. The format and paths to all my songs were correct. Some of it is trial and error. Just make a playlist of a few songs at first. There really is no need to manually edit a notepad file to do so.

What I did to make a playlist seemed pretty simple. I selected songs already on my Pilot using Media Monkey and created a playlist. Then using my right click, I did Send To>.m3u playlist. That allowed me to name the playlist and put it in the Playlist folder on the Pilot. The format and paths to all my songs were correct. Some of it is trial and error. Just make a playlist of a few songs at first. There really is no need to manually edit a notepad file to do so.

Ehh? The goal of playlist syncing is to make only 1 set of playlists that stay with the master media player to sync one or more DAPs.

But I degress, just how did you get MM to sync the external or apply a playlist on the external?
Version 3 will still not see the external in MTP and is too dumb to place files in a logical or legitimate file structure. It is much faster to drag n drop whole albums.

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